SAR #12293

Europe has come to believe its made-up facts.

Horror:  If Golden Dawn's attacks on immigrants throughout Greece reminds you of the Brownshirt attacks on Jews as Hitler rose to power, that's because money isn't the only thing that Greece has borrowed from Berlin.

Your Money or Your Life: Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured. That's crap. Emergency rooms are not health care, they are... for emergencies. They do not treat chronic problems, the things people die from. The uninsured are stabilized and released. Repeatedly. Until they die of what often started as a treatable problem. The Romney/Ryan promise to take Obamacare/Medicaid/Medicare away from 45 million Americans guarantees a great increase in preventable deaths – supposedly because we cannot afford, as a country, to treat our elderly, our poor, our sick. Romney is promising unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy and unnecessary death for the uninsured.

Comparative Economics: According to the IMF, corruption siphons so much money from the Italian economy that it it were its own country it would be the world's 76^th largest economy. And if US financial corruption were its own country... oh wait, it is.

Whether Report: The Commodity Weather Group says winter in the US this year will be cooler than last, causing the demand for heating fuels (and the price thereof) to rise. NOAA, on the other hand, not having any commodities to pimp for, says the warm trend from spring and summer will continue through the winter, as will the drought.

Early Warning System: McDonald's says its world-wide same-store sales are “trending negative.”

Perspective: As the Washingtonians plot to whittle away at Social Security - which is sound and does not need whittling for a couple of decades - keep in mind that more than 21 million Americans - mostly elderly, but including a million children and about 20 million disabled - would be living in poverty without the program.

Takes One To Know One: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association confirmed that, following Graham's endorsement of Romney, it had removed all references to Mormonism as a “cult” from its website.

Snuggle Up: The EIA reports that distillate inventories (think 'heating oil') in the Northeast are 43% below their 5-year average. Stock up now, before it gets cold – and hope that it does not get cold, really, really expensively cold.

Fat Lady, Singing: Researchers say that the battle to stop global warming is lost, as is the struggle to keep global warming to 2ºC. In both cases the battle was lost before we got around to a single skirmish. Now is the time to begin figuring out how and if we can survive in the world we have created. And stopping burning fossil fuels should be the first stop, without which all the rest is wasted effort. What did you do in the war, daddy?

Republican Biology (Advanced): Joe Walsh (R-IL) claims that no exception to save the life of the mother is needed in abortion bans because science has advanced to the point that abortion is no longer medically necessary to save the life of the mother. A lot of ladies will be pleased to hear about this. So will a lot of doctors.

Democracy In-action: Kuwait's brief flirtation with democracy is over, with the Sheikh's police arresting three men who were silly enough to be members of the opposition - for undermining the status of Kuwait's ruler. More demonstrations - and the inevitable police riots - are expected.

The Old Ways Are Best: The IMF has already forgotten that just last week it warned the world that austerity measures were inappropriate and counterproductive in solving the problems of the euro, and has once more insisted that the Portuguese must suffer more.

Porn O'Graph: The 47%, one last time.

The Parting Shot:

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Pointillism.